Police to conduct internal review of Fallon fiasco

The City of London Police will conduct an internal review of the botched investigation which led to last week's collapse of the Old Bailey trial involving Kieren Fallon. However, the force's suitability for such a task was immediately called into question by Fallon's solicitor.

"This was the largest inquiry of its type ever undertaken and there was no precedent," said City of London Commissioner Mike Bowron yesterday. "It is right, therefore, that we should conduct a full and thorough review."

Precise terms of reference have yet to be finalised. A police spokeswoman was unable to confirm whether the review would cover the investigation into trainer Alan Berry, which began at the same time as the Fallon investigation and is believed to have been conducted by the same personnel. Berry is still to be tried, along with a farrier, on a charge of conspiracy to defraud. Both men have pleaded not guilty and a case management hearing will be held in January.

The review is expected to be completed in February, when the findings will be made public. It will be chaired by Commander Patrick Rice, who said last week that the force had "no regrets" in the wake of the Fallon trial's collapse and spoke of the "compelling evidence" which had been presented to the prosecuting team.

"Clearly it is only right and proper that there should be a review," said Fallon's solicitor, Ian Burton. "Whether the City of London Police are the right people to do it is another question.

"It doesn't fill one with a great deal of confidence that the man who will lead it so completely missed the point of the judge's ruling - that the expert's evidence was inadmissible and, even if it had been admitted, it would have offered no evidence in support of the allegation."

Burton is continuing to press for separate inquiries to be made by the Independent Police Complaints Commission and the Attorney General.

Embattled clerk of the course Fiona Needham came in for renewed criticism yesterday when the meeting at Huntingdon was abandoned less than half an hour before the first race had been due to take place. Needham had given the all-clear after inspecting the track at 10.30am but reversed that decision 90 minutes later after a further, unplanned inspection discovered frozen patches of ground.

Explaining her earlier confidence, Needham said she "took the view that the way it was improving, it would be fine for racing. Unfortunately, the temperatures did not continue to rise."

Needham, who also clerks at Warwick, provoked similar controversy there in September, when last-minute watering caused a patch of ground to become unsafe, leading to another late abandonment. Warwick's executive have been charged in respect of the incident and will face a disciplinary hearing early in the new year.